I'm a big Aldi fan. I shop for almost all of my basic food there. The German company that owns it, and Trader Joes, is very efficient, low cost, and they expect their employees to move out with a purpose. All of this efficiency gives everyone a good deal out of the process.

Over the years I have been cutting back on my use of beef. No particular reason, but I have pretty much quit eating beef. I occasionally fix a couple of hamburgers, but have gravitated away from it. I don't even eat beef roasts either. Some of my relatives would have a cow, but I pretty much stick with nice pork loins, and chicken.

Last month I purchased an 85% package lean ground beef, along with all sorts of other goodies from Aldi, and I set it in the refrigerator, and the ground beef somehow got placed at the bottom of a lot of things. I forgot about it until today, when I decided to go to Aldis and pick up some ground beef for the holiday. When I got back, I started rearranging the fridge, and there was this pack of old ground beef, sitting in the back of the upper part of the fridge.

I looked at the "use by" date and it had a "eat or freeze by" date of 8/7/2011. That was almost a month ago, and I just knew it was bad. But somehow it looked neat and fresh, so I took a steak knife and drew a slit in the package top, and took a sniff. Nothing wrong with it, other than the accumulation of red juices on the bottom of the container. It smelt just like I had bought today.

Interesting to say the least. Anyway, I'm going to use it for my hamburgers tomorrow, and not worry about catching some bug. I took it out of the container and it looks great. This shouldn't be right under normal circumstances. If this had come from Kroger, or Food Lion, it would have stunk up the house.

So I am thinking that Aldi is hedging its bets by packaging fresh meats, especially ground ones, and passing them through an irradiating unit. It makes perfect sense to me. The ground beef is processed and laid out very neatly, sliced and then packaged nicely within a nice black plastic container worthy of saving and reusing. I'm betting that once it is packaged, it goes down a belt into a special unit where the meat is irradiated and then loaded on trucks where it is distributed to regional stores.

If the Eco-Wackos got wind of this, they would be having a cow of their own. They would be going Bonkers, and running around in circles, like someone had nailed one of their shoes to the floor.

And if they really aren't irradiating their food, what could possibly be keeping the meats so fresh for so long? Personally, I'm all for this sort of thing. If all foods were irradiated, they could conceivably last for an indefinite time.

Does anyone know if I may be right about Aldi and the practice of Irradiation? I've done a search, and there is no mention of it. But is it possible for them to be doing this and have nobody know about it?

Wal*Mart uses a gas, i forget which, Nitrogen? They fill your meat with those containers and the gas and it keeps your artificially colored meat fresh for longer periods. If you flip the meat upside down, however, and the meat comes in contact with the clear liner, Wal*Mart then has to dispose of the meat within a day or two. If John's meat was shrink wrapped by someone who actually cares about meat, they could have removed all the air needed by bacteria for reproduction.

Protesting irradiated meat/vegetables/dairy is just plain ignorance. People who feel strongly against this sort of thing should undergo forced sterilization procedures.

Almost everything they sell is less expensive than other brands, including store brands.

The way they keep prices so low is because they have half the employees, or less, than other stores. The employees are constantly stocking shelves, and frequently halting to run cash registers. They are always running around like busy little bees.

There are no free shopping carts. To use one costs a quarter, and you have to return the cart in order to get your deposit. This eliminates clutter, and personnel needed to run around and police up all the stray carts.

They buy close-outs, and only sell essential items, never two, three, or more items of the same thing. If you need basic staples, Aldi almost always has it.

Oh, and they have a fantastic chocolate section that is at the entrance, and is like no other store out there. They are renowned for their chocolate inventory.

Once you go shopping there, you will almost always be hooked. They are a huge success because they don't waste time, money, or effort.

Palladin, I think that most irradiating of food is done using X-rays, alpha rays, gamma rays, etc. (ionizing radiation), that only affect the outer electron portions of atoms. Neutrons at certain speeds can impact the nucleus of an atom, adding to or displacing a neutron or displacing a proton, thus in many cases producing a radioactive isotope. We want to sterilize our food, not make it radioactive.

(09-05-2011 01:21 PM)ghoullio Wrote: We have an Aldi's around the block from our house. We did some price checking when we first moved here and found that Aldi's didn't offer much in the way of savings over Wal*Mart.

Funny thing, over here, that is not the case. I go to Wal-Mart frequently because it is next door to Sams, where I am a member. And I also like Wal-Mart's rye bread best, so I usually buy a couple of loaves at a time, and have it sliced there. I like Aldi for their basic items, and use it for just that. I get my specialty items at either Wal-Mart, Food Lion, or Kroger. Each store has its specialty.

Wal*Mart sucks, pure and simple. Whatever Sam Walton built, his protectorates now have surely flushed his hard work down the toilet. I only go because there is no where else. Wal*Mart charges .12 an egg, regardless if you buy 6, 12, 36 or 48. It's bullshit. Our Sam's Club is inept and in poor management, we avoid it like the plague. I have a hard time rewarding stores with bad management my hard earned bucks. The other stores around here are much higher than walmart, but their selection is better. They have less lines, our walmart has 3 lanes open unless its the 1st of the month when all the hoodrats get their foodstamps.

We have been shopping at the Canadian County farmers market, since we eat mostly produce anyway. We will find a decently priced butcher soon, and on that day I will be done with the big box retailers. They are all shit, Target, Walmart, Aldis.

I am not a prounion person by any stretch, but in Michigan, the grocers are much better. Meijer has the best selection, price, and attitude I have ever seen. My experience at Meijer has not been rivaled since shopping elsewhere in other states. I think it is their unions that keep everyone in line.

Around here (Troy, Mich.) Aldi is a discount store, that often equals and sometimes undercuts even Dollar General. And their selection of food is much greater, with produce and frozen meats and vegetables.

You must be a good shopper to constantly get the best products for the best prices. Some things at Costco or Sam's Club is sometimes the best in both quality and price - other times - not. We go to Nino Salvaggio's for high quality fruit, vegetables, and meat, but the price is usually a little higher than other places. Another local fruit market, Agrussa's, is sometimes as good as Nino's - but always less costly. The local side-of-the-road vegetable stands, near our house is renowned through several states as very good places to buy good food for reasonable cost. You can see the tractor full of food come directly in from the fields.

Sam's Club has a very good package of filets that are the best steaks I've ever tasted. Costco, has a similar package with bacon wrapped around the filets, but is not nearly in the same class.

When we were in Vegas, near the center of the cattle kingdom, the butchers did not know what English-cut roast was. The closest they could do was seven-bone cut or round steak. One butcher asked for a photo of what we usually slow cook marinated in Catalina dressing, so tender you can slice it with the side of your fork.

Part of that ground beef I had overlooked for so long, I set aside to see how long it would stay usable. Last night I brought it back out and it was still usable. There was no foul smell, but some of the meat looked mushy, and not all that fresh.

I finally threw it away, because it was not all that much meat. But I'm sure it could have been cooked and eaten. I'm pretty sure the meat had to be irradiated before being sold.

If you shop at aldi stores, you can tell by looking at the ground beef that it is processed by a special machine, chopped out evenly, and then pushed out in a uniform line. Then it is evenly cut, and packaged so that you know it is done by a sophisticated machine. All the packages look the same. Any difference in weight is measured later, after it is cut up.

It is just so easy to send through an irradiator, and then package for shipment.

I'll tell you what, I don't buy ground beef from anyone else anymore, even if the beef is marked down, because I know the Aldi beef will stay safe for use even if it is a while before I get around to eating it.

I'm all for using radiation to keep foods fresh and safe. This is just Common Sense 101, and any Eco-Wacko who gets agitated over it can go and pound his/her head against a wall until what little brains he/she has fall out.

Plus, it cuts down on the cost of food, because the vendor has to set aside a small percentage just to provide the cost of litigation in case some tainted meat accidentally kills some poor customer who doesn't have the ability to fend off critters like we used to way back.